Current ophthalmic diagnostic and measurement systems typically use wavefront acquisition and diagnostic capabilities to deliver measurement accuracy, enhancing the precision of laser vision correction surgery. An exemplary ophthalmic diagnostic and measurement product utilizing wavefronts is the Abbott Medical Optics (AMO) WaveScan WaveFront™ System, which, among having other capabilities and technologies, uses a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor that can quantify aberrations throughout the entire optical system of the patient's eye, including second-order aberrations related to spherical error and cylindrical errors, and higher-order aberrations related to coma, trefoil, and spherical aberrations. An exemplary wavefront diagnostic system was described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,931,371 to Dai, and is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
In addition to its use in ophthalmic diagnostic and measurement systems, laser technology has become the technique of choice for ophthalmic surgical applications, such as refractive surgery for correcting myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and so on, as well as surgery for treating and removing a cataractous lens. Known laser-assisted ophthalmic surgical systems typically use a variety of laser forms and/or laser energies to affect the correction, including infrared lasers, ultraviolet lasers, femtosecond lasers, wavelength multiplied solid-state lasers, and the like. The laser-assisted ophthalmic surgical systems often also utilize wavefront diagnostic systems to measure accurately the refractive characteristics of a particular patient's eye.
A wavefront diagnostic system generally captures eye images during wavefront measurement. A pupil camera in an aberrometer captures images of the eye, illuminated by infrared LEDs designed as a symmetric configuration. These eye images are used, for example, for iris registration for laser vision correction. The eye image is essential for wavefront-guided corneal refractive surgery since it identifies the treatment area and is used for eye tracking. While current method for capturing eye images using wavefront are generally adequate for patient examinations, further improvements would be desirable, particularly in measuring the size and position of the lens capsule and of the implanted intraocular lens (IOL).
In addition, ophthalmic slit lamps also capture an anterior segment of an eye with a beam of light. An exemplary ophthalmic slit lamp was described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,338,169 to Somani, and is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Further improvement to ophthalmic slit lamps in measuring the size and position of the lens capsule and of the implanted intraocular lens would also be desirable.